2017 Sessions

In total, there were 30 fantastic TransportCamp sessions. Session notes were taken for each unconference session.  Each post includes all the essential session details, links and a summary of all the key points of discussion.

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Bike Data

Session Details

Room: Supper A

Format: General discussion

No. of attendees: 28

Host name: Luke Poland

Scribe: Sarah Roberts

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What are the issues surrounding data use?       

  • There are so many ways of collecting data on who is riding where, but we currently don’t know the bigger picture.

  • Sharing data is hard to do due to privacy issues.

    How do other people in the bike space collect and share data?

  • Use it to make investments, turn data collection into information that can advocate for things.

  • Counting bike users can give you a snapshot, time sampling data is also important as it allows predictions to be made over a particular day.

How do you get data, how are you going to use this data?

  • Vicroads- bike trials improve the culture. Looking at timed data at particular regions.
  • Next step, can we use data from bike sharing companies like obike mobike or blue bikes?

Can we use data from bike sharing companies like Obike MoBike or Blue Bikes?

  • There is a Victorian bike data and vicroads portal that is open and includes this type of data.

  • Other cities focus on sharing their data- We need to have this type of stance here in Australia.

  • Data that tells us where people are, where they are travelling and what facilities they are using is helpful.

  • (PTV) We don’t have the data on facilities and bikes at this stage, but we are working on it with Monash.

  • Bikes often don’t have mechanisms to collect data, but bike sharing does.

  • There is no one report saying what is actually going on with bike travel, this is because it covers multiple sectors of government.

  • We need to develop a single way of collecting data and an overview so that everyone can use it

  • Who should do this? Different organisations have different focuses and will therefore target different areas.

Limitations

There are limitations with the blue bike docking systems. You need density, bike racks (the cost of implementing these are high though). Dockless bikes currently have the advantage.

MoBike

  • They are a technology company, that uses smart locks, connected via simcards and the internet.

  • Mobike constantly monitors where each of their bikes are.

  • They need to know where their users are so their bikes can be moved closer to them.

  • They need data so they can see where people are and make infrastructure investments accordingly.

  • Their focus is on Transport, City planning (using their data to improve the city for bike riding, walking and PT use), Social (help people in deprived areas move).

  • You can’t use movement data with personal data by law. They use opt-in surveys as a way around this.

Question: Sharing this data with city and local councils, would you sell this data?

Response: No, they share their data with cities when they are the sole operator within those cities.

What do we need to know?

We need to understand why people ride, where they ride, where the gaps are and how it links with PT

  • Hard to beat the train with the bike. This is not true (covered in another session).How are the trips linked together?

How are the trips linked together?

The bike is part of the network and we need to start thinking of them this way.

We need to understand the people who don’t ride as well. People who do ride gives us an understanding but we need to build up the system more. There is currently not enough data on why people don’t ride bikes.

  •  Mobike, sees this in the opposite, China has more people riding Mobike than taxis. It is about the first mile and last mile connections.

Things to consider

  • We can’t be reliant on bike sharing data as personal bikes are used differently and are more common.

  • Everyone wants the data but no one is willing to invest in it and then release it.

Question: What are people doing overseas?

Response: Transport for London, has a list of statistics, facts, what they are doing, trends, and a report on the objectives that they have achieved. We don’t do this in Melbourne, but we need to start creating this foundation.

  •  We could possibly build off the census data

  •  We need to know what we are using this data for, why we are collecting it, who needs it, how we share it, how we use it, and what the future will look like.

  •  Need to find out how do people use bikes? How can bikes be used in other ways. Bikes as health, and a community active.